Composite construction material



Dec.l l5, 1936. i Q A UPSON 2,064,327

COMPOSITE` CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL Original Filed MarohfZ', 1951 /N VENTO/e Zar /xson, ...K9

Patented Dec. 15, 1936 COMPOSITE CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL Charles A. Upson, Lockport, N. Y., assigner to The Upson Company, Lockport, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 27,

1931, Serial No. 525,792

Renewed October 21, 1935 3 Claims.

This invention relates to a composite construction or building material and has for one of its objects the provision of a generally improved and more satisfactory construction material hav- 5 ing a substantial amount of stiffness or rigidityv and at the same time including a portion which is relatively soft or iiexible.

Another object is the provision of a product especially suitable for use in constructing automobile bodies, for example, and which when so used will have a sound deadening and heat insulating eiect.

Still another object is the provision of a composite building material which will have a sound deadening effect or a heat insulating effect or both when used for general construction purposes, such as being embodied in Walls or floors of buildings.

To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawing: Figs. 1 to 11 inclusive are diagrammatic crosssections each taken through a different embodiment of material constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several views indicate the same parts.

The composite material of the present invention may ybe constructed in a considerable variety of ways, some embodiments being more useful under certain circumstances, and other embodiments being more useful under other circumstances. A number of possible embodiments are .herein illustrated and described as examples. `Other variations, or combinations of certain features of one embodiment with certain features of another embodiment, will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

An underlying idea of most of the various embodiments is the use of a relatively strong or rigid member to give the desired degree of stiffness to the composite material, associated with a relatively soft member providing the sound deadening or heat insulating effect, orboth. The strong rigid member may be called for convenience a structural member. Preferably both the structural member and the soft ilexible member are of brous material. For example, the strong rigid member may be of heavy cardboard, chip board, paper board, or other suitable form `of bre boardA preferably of a rigid, dense, and compact kind, as distinguished from porous or (CI. 154-44) f v cellular boards and from soft, weak, and exible material such as felt paper, or hair felt, for ex- Y ample.

It is generally advantageous to have the structural member of the composite material of a fibrous nature rather than of a metallic or other mineral nature, not only from the standpoint of economy, but also because of the lighter weight of brous material such as paper bo'ard, and because of the fact that paper board or other brous materials in general have a greater sound deadening effect than metal or other mineral materials, such as plaster. Thus a structural member of paper board or the like is not so likely to give rise to sounds or squeaks, which might be produced by metallic structural members when the composite material is used in articles subject to repeated jars and vibrations, such as automobile bodies.

Referring now to Fig. 1 of the drawing, there is shown as one embodiment of the invention a composite structure` including a pair of outside or liner sheets II of relatively stii brous material, such as heavy fibre board, and a plurality of intermediate layers or plies I 2 of relatively soft material placed between the liner sheets I I. The plies of this soft material I2 may eachlconsist, for example, of a relatively thick layer of felt paper. The various plies I I and I2 are cemented together by any suitable adhesive such as sodium silicate, which tends also to render the product nre-resistant to some degree.

In Fig. 2 of the drawing there is yshown a construction somewhat the reverse of that illustrated in Fig. 1. Here the stiff structural members 2I are placed at the center of the product and in the present instance two layers or plies of heavy paper board are employed. This same idea of using two or more plies of material for the structural member may be utilized in any of the other embodiments of the invention, if preferred. On each side of this stiff structural core one or more layers of relatively soft material 22 are employed. For example, two plies .of felt paper may be placed on each side of the structural core, all of the various plies being secured to each other as by means of cement or other suitable means.

In Fig. 3 there is shown an embodiment comprising only a single structural member 3| of a single ply of heavy paper board, and three plies 32 of relatively soft material, such as felt paper, secured to one side of the structural member 3L Fig. 4 illustrates still another embodiment employing the central structural layer 6I of stiff paper board or the like, a thick layer 42 of felt paper or the like on each side of the member 4l, and a layer 43 of textile fabric secured by cement or other suitable means to the outer face of each layer 42. The textile fabric 43 is preferably strong and coarse, such as burlap, although it may be of a ne and close weave and may be coated with a waterproofing material and/or embossed and/or decorated if desired. The layers 43 form the exposed faces of the composite structure. The word exposed is here used purely with reference to the composite building material itself. without regard to whether or not the face of the material is ultimately exposed to view after it has been incorporated in a nished wall or other structure.

In Fig. 5 of the drawing there is shown a construction comprising a structural member 5| of heavy paper board or the like, a layer 52 of relatively soft material formed, for example, by three plies of felt paper, and an outer layer 53 of textile fabric of a relatively flne or close Weave which has been waterproofed by the use of sizing or by any suitable known method. This fabric 53 may be decorated if desired. The form of construction herein illustrated is especially suitable where the material is to be used in damp surroundings, as the waterproof nature of the layer 53 will, to a large extent, prevent moisture from entering the layers 52 and 5I and from disintegrating them or causing any breaking down of the adhesive employed between the various layers.

In Fig. 6 there is shown a central structural layer 6I of paper board or the like, having on each side a soft layer 62 of flocculent material such as wool, hair felt, or the like. In cases where it is not necessary that the product have the stiffness provided by a layer 6I of paper board, the layer 6l may be of a stiff fabric, such as coarse burlap, which will give relatively greater stiffness than the flocculent layers 62, and will fulfil the functions of a structural member, but which will still permit the composite material to be flexible to a substantial degree.

Referring now to Fig. 7, there is shown an embodiment of the invention comprising a structural member 1I of paper board or the like, to one side of which is attached adhesively or otherwise a layer 12 of soft flexible material preferably of a substantially flocculent nature, such as hair felt. When this layer 12 is of substantial thickness, it may be advisable to incorporate at an intermediate point therein a reinforcing layer 13 of reticulated fabric, for example. This may be, for instance, a layer of burlap of a relatively loose or open weave, so that the bres of the layer 12 are felted through the burlap. If desired, another reinforcing layer 14 may overlie the exposed surface of the layer 12 and be secured thereto adhesively or in any other suitable manner. This outer reinforcing layer 14 is preferably also of a reticulated textile fabric, and may consist, for example, of a more or less open net work of the same general character as ordinary cotton mosquito netting or fly screening. Such a net work helps to hold the flocculent felted layer 12 in place, but because of the retlculated character of the layer 14 the material 12 is exposed in the interstices of the net work to such an extent that it may still be considered to form a substantially exposed face of the composite material.

In Fig. 8 of the drawing there is illustrated an embodiment substantially similar to that shown in Fig. 7 except that the outer reinforcing layer 14- is omitted. In this embodiment the `structural or stiffening member of paper board or other suitable material is indicated at 8 I, and the layer of flocculent material, such as hair felt, is shown at 82. A reinforcing layer 83 is embedded in the layer 82, this reinforcing layer being of reticulated or open weave textile fabric through which the fibres of the layer 82 are felted.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 9, the structural or stiffening member of paper board or the like is indicated at 9|. To one side of this there is attached a layer 92 of felt paper or other relatively soft material, and if an exposed surface of still softer material is desired, there may be added a layer 93 of cotton wadding, or the like. When waterproofness is desired, a layer 94 of waterproofed cloth may be cemented to the member 9| on the opposite side from the member 92, and if this side of the composite material is to be exposed to view in the final finished structure, a layer 94 may be employed even when waterproofness is not desired, such member being of cloth, good quality paper, or any other suitable or desirable material. Obviously a similar finishing layer, either waterproofed or not, may be utilized in connection with any of the other embodiments of the invention.

Fig. 10 of the drawing shows an embodiment somewhat similar to that illustrated in Fig. 2, but differing therefrom in that the structural stiffening layer IUI is of heavy textile fabric, such as burlap, instead of paper board or the like. On each side of this layer IUI of burlap there is placed a thick layer |02 of felt paper, each such layer being built up preferably of two or more plies. When a total of four or more plies of felt paper are employed in this way with a stiffening layer of textile fabric embedded therein at an intermediate point, it is found that for most purposes the resulting composite product is sufficiently strong and rigid without the use oi' a layer of paper board or the like, and in some cases this use of a textile fabric as an intermediate stiffening member seems to result in a product which is even stronger than when a layer of paper board is used in place of the fabric.

Another variation is illustrated in Fig. ll, in which a plurality of layers H2 or felt paper are employed, four being shown in the present instance, and between each two layers of felt paper there is interposed a. layer lll of kraft paper,

paper board, or other suitable stiffening material. Because of the use of several stiffening layers Ill spaced in this way, each individual layer need not be of great thickness and it is' found to be satisfactory to use simply kraft paper for each layer in place of the thicker paper board which is preferably used in some of the other embodiments. I

'I'he terms "paper board and fibre board as used in this specification and in the claims are intended in a broad sense, as being practically interchangeable and synonymous with each other and include the products variously known as card board, chip board, paste board, box board and the like, as well as all boards or sheet materials which includes substantial quantities of fibre or brous materials, whether in the form of paper pulp or otherwise.

As briefly mentioned above, some of the embodiments previously described are more suitable for some uses and others are better adapted for other uses. For example, where a substantial degree of sound absorption is desired, the embodiments shown in Figs. 6, 7, and 8 would be especially useful because of the relatively thick layers 75 of iloc'culent material which act as excellent absorbers of sound. These layers also provide heat insulation to a substantial extent when this is desired.

Other embodiments of the invention, such for example, as those shown in Figs. l to 3 inclusive, will be especially suitable in the construction of automobile bodies|- where some degree of sound deadening and heat insulation is desired. 'I'he use of the embodiments havingone of the exposed faces of -soft material, such as those shown, for example, in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 9, and l0, is particularly suitable in the construction of automobile bodies and the likebecause here the exposed face of the soft material can be placed in contact with 'the metal sheathing, frame work, or other metallic parts of the automobile body (the metal sheet 25, 65, and 85, in Figs. 2, 6, and 8, respectively),

and because of its soft nature itwill tend to damp or diminish to a considerable extent the noises embodiments disclosed may be i'lreproofed or waterproofed, or both, by any suitable. and Well known treatments. If desired, the structural member `or membersof fibre board or paper board may be treated with an asphaltic emulsion added to the beateror applied at any point during the making of the board. Feltmade of asbestos fibres may be substituted for ordinary felt paper wherea high degree of fire resistance is desired. The felt paper, hair felt, fabric, or other soft material may be lightly impregnated if desired with asphaltum or any waterproong or reproong material, preferably being impregnated only to an extent which will not materially stiffen'the soft material or destroy the sound absorbing properties thereof. -The various layers of various materials may be made up of one or several plies as preferred. The adhesive on cement used to hold the various layers or plies together may be of anydesired character, either waterproof or not waterproof, asl preferred.

While certain embodiments -of the invention have been disclosed, itis to be understood that,

the inventive idea may be carried out in a number of Ways. 'I'his application is therefore not to be limited to the precise details described, but is intended to cover all variations and mcdiilcations thereof falling Within the spirit of the invention' or the scope Vof the appended claims.

l. A composite construction material comprising la layer of relatively strong and rigid fiber board to give stiffness to the composite material, a layer of felt paper attached to said ber board, and a layer of cotton batting attached to said felt paper.

2. A composite construction material comprising a plurality of plies of felt paper secured to each other, and a layer of relatively strong and rigid ber board secured to each side of said plurality of plies of felt paper to give stiffness to the composite material. y

3. .A construction for damping vibrations of metal sheets and absorbing sound in the vicinity thereof, comprising a body of relatively soft feltlike material lying substantially against one side of the metal sheet to be damped, a layer of relatively strong and rigid ber board secured to a i substantial area of said felt-like body, and a second body of relatively soft and porous felt-,like material on the opposite side of said liber board layer from said metal sheet and secured to 'said' 

